ARCANUM – The Lady Trojans volleyball team took command midway in the first set with Mississinawa Valley and made a clean sweep 25-16, 25-14 and 25-19 to win the match and take sole possession of 1st place in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference.
Arcanum’s win improved their record to 11-2 overall, 7-0 in the conference
Mississinawa Valley came in at 11-1 overall and is now 6-1 in the WOAC looking to challenge the two-time defending league champions knowing it would take a great effort.
The Blackhawks started well with a 2-0 lead and then later led 13-11 but the tide shifted behind the serve of Arcanum Freshman Halle Bennett, the left-hander would serve up a couple of aces and a few strong hits from senior middle hitter Caroline Long for kills gave the Trojans the lead 16-13.
The Blackhawks battled to take the next couple of points, but Arcanum got their momentum going again by winning a couple of long rallies with good athletic play on both sides of the net.
MV trailing 21-15 needed a timeout to regroup but there was no stopping Arcanum as they went on to win the set 25-16.
Arcanum jumped out 9-3 at the start of the 2nd set and Mississinawa was playing from behind and could never to get into their game as the Trojans dominated for a 25-14 win.
In the second set the Trojans were firing on all cylinders with setters doing their job. Halle Bennett had 21 assists and senior Grace Fry had 14 assists in the game.
Mississinawa is an athletic team led by four seniors who are very competitive, and they would rally in the third set determined not to go down in straight sets.
Trailing 17-12 seniors Allyson Waymire and Makenna Hoggatt were able both put down a couple of kills and a big block by Gretchen Rodeheffer pulled the Hawks to within a point 20-19.
Arcanum took a timeout and then rattled off the last five points that included two kills from senior Kamryn Beisner (11 in game) and two from sophomore Gabrielle Nottingham including the game winner for a 25-19, third set win.
Just a few days ago Arcanum had jumped on top of Tri-Village winning the first couple of sets only to see the Patriots rally for a 3rd set win and the Trojans didn’t want to let that happen again.
“We used the Tri-Village game as an opportunity to learn, we talked about it during
practice yesterday and worked on trying to finish strong,” Arcanum coach Jacie Holman said.
“There were times in all three sets where it was kind of close, but they did exactly what I asked them to do, finish strong,” coach Holman added.
Arcanum was strong at the net both from a hitting standpoint and blocking.
When Arcanum set senior Caroline Long in the middle she was deadly, pounding down 15 kills in the game. Likewise, Long led the front in blocks with four and junior Ella Flatter had three.
“We knew they (Mississinawa) had three strong hitters with the twins (Makenna & Cora Hoggatt) and Allyson Waymire so that’s what we worked on yesterday to read those hitters and block away,” Holman stated.
“I have to give credit, not just to my hitters, but my blockers, because there were moments they (MV) put the ball down, and their hitters didn’t know how to respond from the center wall from the tips at the net, and that allowed us to put the ball away to take control of the game,” Holman explained.
Though the Trojans played well up front they also did a great job of not letting the ball hit the floor keeping the ball in play while also getting good service play as well. Kamryn Beisner led the way with 15 digs and junior Cameron Garbig had 11 in the match.
“You know, I told those girls, one person didn’t win this game tonight. It took every single one of them, whether they saw the saw the floor or were on the bench. These girls knew what tonight meant, they wanted it and proved it. We had in our minds we were winning in three sets,” Holman commented.
“We wanted to send the message across the league we just took out a tough top contender in three, we didn’t let them go five. These girls want a back-to-back-to-back. They want a three-peat, and they knew this was a big hurdle tonight. We aren’t done, we have a lot of out of conference games that I want to focus on and for the tournament as well,” Holman concluded.
Mississinawa Valley coach Taylor Rawlings never felt like her team got it going in this one.
“I didn’t feel like we played our game today. It never felt like we were truly settled in. Arcanum is a tough place to play. They have great coaching, great hitters, and we just didn’t bring our “A” game today,” Rawlings stated after the game.
“We did have some moments where we looked like our team, but we can’t play like a roller coaster and expect to win. We had way too many errors in the end. I did see some positives, our seniors were stepping up, and I know those four really wanted to win,” Rawlings added.
Although it was a tough loss for Mississinawa there is plenty of volleyball to play but they will need help from a fellow WOAC team if there is any hope of grabbing a share of the WOAC title.
“We’re hopeful … but the bigger goal is to continue to make improvements and thankfully we are in a different division than Arcanum and as a team we want to make it further in the tournament this year,” Rawlings concluded.
